Creating Wildfire Resilience Through Preparedness and Situational Awareness Wildfire Impact On Transmission Darrell Moore, Reliability Analyst July 15, 2014
Creating Wildfire Resilience
Through Preparedness and
Situational AwarenessWildfire Impact On Transmission
Darrell Moore, Reliability Analyst
July 15, 2014
RELIABILITY | ACCOUNTABILITY2
• NERC: Promote Information Sharing and Situational Awareness throughout the entire ERO, with the objective of creating more resilience to Wildfire threats across all Interconnections.
• WECC: San Diego Fires – Situational Awareness
• SDG&E: Identifying Risk, Understanding Risk, Risk Mitigation and Building Resilience to Wildfire Threats.
• All: Lessons Learned
Agenda
RELIABILITY | ACCOUNTABILITY3
• ERO Darrell Moore, NERC Reliability Analyst
Steven Ashbaker, WECC Director of Operations Performance Analysis
• Industry David Geier, SDG&E Vice President, Electric Transmission & System
Engineering
Jonathan Woldemariam, SDG&E Director Electric Transmission & Distribution Engineering
Presenters
Steve AshbakerDirector, Operations Performance Analysis
San Diego Fires - Situational Awareness
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• California has seen 25-50% of normal
rain fall the past year
• Third consecutive year of below normal
precipitation
• Subsequently, early start to California fire
season
Severe Drought/ Early Fire Season
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• WECC SA received timely and detailed
updates on fire status
• A total of 9 fires of various degrees of threat to
the BES were reported over a 5 day period
• Two “restricted maintenance” days were
declared by the CISO
• One EEA-2 was declared
• WECC SA provided 10 updates to NERC
Situation Awareness
© 2012 San Diego Gas & Electric Company. All copyright and trademark rights reserved.
Creating Wildfire Resilience
through PreparednessPresented to NERCJuly 2014
Dave Geier
San Diego Gas & Electric
VP – Electric Transmission & System Engineering
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SDG&E Transmission System Overview
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SONGS no longer in-service (was2150 MW, 20% Owned by SDG&E)
Palomar566 MW
IPP Owned
SDG&E Owned
Otay Mesa603 MW
IV renewables 900 MW
• Service Area – 4,100 square miles
• 1.4 million Electric Meters
• Total Local Generation 3090MW
• Maximum Import Limits 3350MW
• 1,951 Circuit Miles of Transmission
• 24 Transmission Substations
• 109 Transmission/Distribution Substations
Identifying Risk: Increased Wildfire Activity
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The map below shows portions of San Diego County that have
burned since 2000, including the Cedar Fire and all major 2007 fires.
2003 (Cedar Fire)
• Acres Burned: 280,278
• Structures Destroyed: 2,820
• Structures Damaged: 63
• Vehicles Destroyed: 148
• Deaths: 14
• Injuries: 104
2007 (All Major Fires)
• Acres Burned: 368,566
• Structures Destroyed: 2,665
• Structures Damaged: 117
• Vehicles Destroyed: 239
• Deaths: 7
• Injuries: 127
(For the purposes of this slide/presentation,
structures refer to overhead utility structures)
Understanding Risk: Drought Enhancing 2014 Wildfire Potential
LocationRainfall
(thru Apr 14)
Normal
(thru Apr 14)Percent of Normal
Laguna Beach 3.88” 13.81” 28% of Normal
Oceanside 4.20” 13.58” 31% of Normal
Lindbergh Field 5.06” 10.31” 49% of Normal
Ramona 7.85” 16.00” 49% of Normal
Campo 6.95” 15.66” 44% of Normal
• Rainfall over the last year has been 25%-50% of normal.
• This is our third consecutive year of below normal rainfall.
CA Drought Monitor
• 100% of CA in Severe Drought
• 76% of CA in Extreme Drought
(Including much of San Diego County)
Early Season Wildfire Activity
• May 13-16 Fire
Complex
• Coastal San Diego
County
• 8 wildfires were
greater than 100 acres
• Over 13,000
customers affected
• Over 40 homes
destroyed
• One Fatality
• Estimated $60 Million
Damage
• 26,000 Total acres
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Risk Mitigation: Establishing Resilience to Wildfire
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Air Support Contract Contracted Fire Fighters
Wood to Steel (2,220T & 1,750D)
Mobile Fire Trailers
Updated Operational Procedures
Meteorologists and Fire Coordinators Mobile Command Centers
• Operational changes to turn-off reclosing
• Mobilizing crews to pre-determined locations
• De-energize for safety when necessary
• Staging of washing rigs and fire crews to pre-
determined locations
• Prior to and throughout the event, SDG&E
provides situational awareness and forecasts to
CAISO
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Risk Mitigation:
Proactive Operational and Developmental Measures
• Coordinate with neighboring utilities for
potential support
• Take operational actions as needed to
optimize power flows in coordination with the
CAISO.
• For major events, the CAISO will declare a
system emergency where they may suspend
code of conduct and allow out of market sales
to stabilize system
• SDG&E Weather Station Network: largest
utility weather network in the world delivering
unsurpassed real-time decision support
• State-of-the-Art Forecasting System: Provides superior
understanding of weather and vegetation moisture
supporting proactive emergency operations
• Collaborations with key stakeholders in the
local fire community increasing data sharing
• Mountain top camera network allows for real
time monitoring of hazardous conditions
providing updated intelligence
• Click here to play video
Building Resilience: Situational Awareness Enhancements through Community Collaborations and Big Data
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The Fire Potential Index is a planning and
decision support tool designed to reduce the
risk of a wildfire while improving efficiency
and reliability
• Incorporates weather, live fuel moisture, dead
fuel moisture, and greenness of the annual
grasses.
• Calculated for 8 sub-sets of the SDG&E
Service Territory
• Used to inform operational decisions,
work restrictions, resource allocation
Building Resilience: Developing Operational Tools
Fire Potential Index (FPI)
Slide 15Privileged & Confidential, Prepared at the Direction of Counsel
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
FPI
Cedar FireWitch Fire
Angel Fire
Pines Fire
Border
Fire
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Sierra Fire
Building Resilience: Developing Operational Tools Fire Potential Index (FPI)
Our Mission: Develop a tool to mitigate risks associated with
extreme fire potential during Santa Ana Winds.
Our Vision: To provide a
decision support tool to fire
agencies and the general
public to increase public
safety and overall
preparedness.
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Building Resilience: Developing Operational Tools
Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index (SAWTI)
• SDG&E Vegetation
Management
maintains a
comprehensive
database of over
455,000 trees that
could impact our
system.
• Includes tree location,
species, growth rates
and pruning history
• This program has
resulted in drastic
decreases in tree-
related outages on
the system.
Building Resilience: Vegetation Management Program
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Comprehensive Program to Reduce Fire Risk and
Improve Mitigation:
– Extensive engineering changes (more stringent design
criteria, use of fire-resistant materials, use of state-of-
the-art equipment)
– Expanded QA/QC inspection and repair program
– Escalating operational changes coincident with
conditions
– Weather monitoring and forecasting
– Aggressive vegetation management program
– Far reaching community outreach and involvement
Lessons Learned
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Dave Geier
San Diego Gas & Electric
VP – Electric Transmission & System Engineering
Thank You
Questions?
Creating Wildfire Resilience through Preparedness
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